An existing heat exchanger, such as an air conditioner, is typically constructed by stacking a plurality of heat exchanger fins, in which a plurality of through-holes have been formed to enable heat exchanger tubes to be inserted. Such heat exchanger fins are manufactured by a manufacturing apparatus for heat exchanger fins depicted in FIG. 5. The manufacturing apparatus for heat exchanger fins is equipped with an uncoiler 12 where a thin metal plate 10 made of aluminum or the like has been wound into a coil. The metal strip 10 pulled out from the uncoiler 12 via pinch rollers 14 is inserted into an oil applying apparatus 16 where machining oil is applied onto the surface of the metal strip 10, and is then supplied to a mold apparatus 20 provided inside a press apparatus 18.
The mold apparatus 20 internally includes an upper mold die set 22 that is capable of up-down movement and a lower mold die set 24 that is static. A plurality of collar-equipped through-holes (not illustrated), where collars of a predetermined height are formed around through-holes, are formed at predetermined intervals in a predetermined direction by the mold apparatus 20. The result of machining the metal thin plate to produce the through-holes and the like is hereinafter referred to as the “metal strip 11”.
The metal strip 11 that is machined here is formed with a plurality of heat exchanger fins as the final products aligned in the width direction. For this reason, an inter-row slit apparatus is provided in the mold apparatus 20. In the inter-row slit apparatus, an intermittently fed metal strip 49 is cut by upper blades and lower blades coming together so as to manufacture products (referred to below as “metal strips of the product width”) in the form of long strips in the conveying direction.
The metal strips of the product width are cut into predetermined lengths by a cutter 26. The products that have been cut into the predetermined lengths (i.e., the heat exchanger fins) are then stacked in a stacker 28. The stacker has a plurality of pins 27 that are erected in the perpendicular direction and stacks the manufactured heat exchanger fins with the pins 27 inserted into the through holes.